‘Deadherds’ Take a Bite Out of Fire District’s Blackberries

Iko went where a brush hog couldn’t.

The goat pushed his face into a wall of blackberry behind Sunnycrest Nursery in Key Center, working through thorns and leaves that had grown thick on property owned by the Key Peninsula Fire District. Nearby, Sugar wore some of the day’s work on his face, his white hair stained purple with blackberry juice.

KPFD could have brought in heavy, pricey equipment to clear 10-foot-high blackberry brambles and the Scotch broom that had taken hold of the roughly 3.5-acre property and encroached on the nursery’s land. Instead, Division Chief Bill Sawaya went looking for a more natural way, and found it with a small herd of goats and a Longbranch farmer who is still figuring out exactly how to make a business out of them.

The arrangement gives the district an unconventional solution to an ordinary maintenance problem, and Grateful Goat Farms owner Farrell Timlake an opportunity to grow in his new venture: goatscaping.

Going with Goats

The district had tried its own small tractor without much success. More conventional clearing estimates were around $9,000, Sawaya said. Other approaches could involve pesticides, which the district wants to avoid, while heavy equipment raised concerns around wetlands and septic systems on the property.

“We all love where we live, and we know everything flows to the Sound,” he said.

After 30 years in the fire service, Sawaya said thinking about what happens beyond the immediate problem comes naturally.

At an overturned vehicle leaking gasoline or oil, responders look at the nearby ditch and ask where it leads. Sawaya approached the Key Center property much the same way.

He remembered seeing goats clearing vegetation in Tacoma and University Place and began researching whether that could work for KPFD. Goats could maneuver in places larger equipment couldn’t and knock back the invasive vegetation while leaving the ground largely undisturbed.

Grazing for Leads

He didn’t have to look far. Farrell Timlake and his wife, Laurie, raise goats in Longbranch and sell goat-milk soap through their business, Grateful Goat Farms. Timlake had seen goats used to manage vegetation elsewhere and had been asked often enough whether he rented out his own animals that he decided there might be a business in it.

“One goat led to another goat, and all of a sudden we had so many goats I’m like, ‘Yeah, well, you guys better get to work,’ ” he said.

The timing couldn’t have been better.

About two weeks after deciding to rent out the goats for the summer, Timlake arrived to set up his booth at the farmers market at Sunnycrest. Before the market opened, Sunnycrest owner Debbie Cassidy approached him about the overgrown fire district property behind it.

“We had literally just decided … ‘OK, we’re going to do this,’ ” he said. “And here she was walking up, giving us our first lead.”

The district went with the local option. Timlake’s bid came in at around $3,500, well under the roughly $9,000 estimates the district had received for more conventional clearing.

Munching Machines

Still new to goatscaping — Timlake and his crew had one previous job, in Gig Harbor, before this — he figured the herd would take about 10 days at the Key Center property. Work began in early September, and weeks later, the goats were still on the job.

“I definitely underestimated how long it would take,” Timlake said. “Part of it is I need a lot more goats, but I’m building up to it.”

That learning curve is part of turning goats into a landscaping crew. The Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board says grazing, particularly by goats, can help control Himalayan blackberries and keep them from spreading. Blackberries are firmly on the herd’s menu.

But the goats don’t simply enter an impenetrable thicket and eat their way through. When blackberry brambles get too thick to push through, Timlake cuts and knocks down canes so the herd can reach the leaves and new growth. They eat much of the green vegetation and stems, then move farther into the brush. “When they’re eating, they’re just nonstop machines,” he said.

The work won’t eradicate the blackberry, which can regrow from its roots and may need repeated treatment. But the goats can substantially knock it back without a machine grinding across the property — and they require considerably more management than the average brush hog.

Timlake installs temporary fencing, provides water and watches the herd.

On his first night at the Key Center job, he was worried enough about the goats getting loose that he slept in the trailer with them. He said the goats have seemed less interested in jumping the temporary fencing than in occasionally testing whether they can push through it.

Deadherds

The herd’s names draw heavily from Timlake’s affinity for the Grateful Dead. Joining Iko and Sugar are Maggie, Bertha, Ace, Tennessee, and Jed, among others. Sugar sometimes eats enough blackberries that her face begins turning purple and pink — or, in Deadhead terms, “tie-dye,” as Timlake put it.

The Key Center project is also helping Timlake learn what the next version of his business needs to look like. More goats are high on the list. One may already be on the way: friends recently contacted Timlake about a goat found wandering along State Route 302. They spent about two weeks trying unsuccessfully to locate its owner before asking whether Timlake could add it to his growing workforce.

He can. And for a herd named for the Grateful Dead, Timlake said there was really only one appropriate name for a goat found rolling solo down SR 302: Truckin’.